The Course of Reason Bloghttp://www.centerforinquiry.net/oncampus/blog
The CFI On Campus weblog.ensmcgraw@centerforinquiry.netCopyright 20152015-01-28T20:56:21+00:00Another Successful Year: CFI On Campus affiliate groups in 2014Stef McGrawhttp://www.centerforinquiry.net/oncampus/blog/entry/a_year_of_community_and_activism_cfi_on_campus_affiliate_groups_in_2014/
http://www.centerforinquiry.net/oncampus/blog/entry/a_year_of_community_and_activism_cfi_on_campus_affiliate_groups_in_2014/#When:20:56+00:00
The CFI On Campus team is excited for the rest of 2015. From working on the 2015 CFI Leadership Conference (July 30 - August 2 in Amherst, NY) to continuing to develop resources and plan for the future of CFI On Campus, we’re looking forward to an eventful and productive year.

But, of course, CFI On Campus isn’t really about us–it’s about the freethinking students who build community and advocate for skepticism and secularism every day on their campuses. And based on the incredible work they did in 2014, we’re just as enthusiastic about what the future holds for freethinking students in 2015. While it’s fresh on our minds, we’d like to highlight just a few of the many accomplishments of CFI On Campus affiliate groups in 2014:

• The University of Northern Iowa Freethinkers and Inquirers (UNIFI) put on their annual Darwin Week which featured four days of lectures on science, skepticism, activism, and sexuality with speakers such as Nate Phelps and philosopher of science Elisabeth Lloyd.

• Also in the vein of advocating for science and critical thinking, the Gulf Coast State College CFI On Campus hosted an impressive Carl Sagan Day (Carl Sagan Week?) which featured science speakers, a film showing, and trivia!

• ISU Atheist and Agnostic Society protested a campus preacher and showed support for LGBT students.

For Halloween, the Atheists, Humanists, and Agnostics at UW-Madison once again displayed their God Graveyard, which featured tombstones with the names and images of gods that are no longer worshipped.

And we can’t forget about the awards given to the following groups at our CFI Leadership Conference this past summer:

Most Improved: Furman University Society of Free Inquiry - For the past few years, their programs focused primarily on developing their campus community, with little outreach into the broader movement. However, in 2014, they put on an array of engaging programs at Furman, such as a live screening of the debate between Ken Ham and Bill Nye, a critical discussion on the movie Zeitgiest, and regular ‘coffee with an atheist’ events. In addition, they have plans to reach out and become involved with student groups in their region.

Best Activism: Atheists, Humanists, & Agnostics at UW-Madison - They posted a high quality display of the Flying Spaghetti Monster in their statehouse to demonstrate the ridiculousness of having religious groups be able to set up a display in an important government building.

Best New Group: Secular Students at Iowa - This year they helped organize a lecture with Richard Dawkins on the separation of church and state, held weekly discussion meetings on Science, religion, and secularism, and volunteered at the Hope Lodge, which offers long term housing to relatives of hospital patients. This put them on par with more well-established campus groups.

Best Branding: Secular Alliance at Indiana University - They have created a recognizable and unique brand for their group, which extends to their signage, tabling materials, campus chalking efforts, and online presence.

Best Programming: Freethinkers at Virginia Tech - They have had a diverse and consistent array of programming, including casual meetups at a local restaurant, breakfast discussion events, forums on topics like religion and politics, lectures from Virginia Tech professors, a secular support group, volunteering at a local food bank, and even group hikes.

Best Outreach: Secular Student Alliance at the University of Nevada, Reno - From engaging students with interfaith discussion groups and tabling consistently on their campus, to successfully petitioning the Reno City Council to not include a prayer commencement at their meetings and participating in service efforts like Relay for Life and hosting a winter clothing drive to benefit Northern Nevada families in association with United Cerebral Palsy of Nevada, the Secular Student Alliance at the University of Nevada, Reno has really put freethought and secularism on the map in their area.

]]>2015-01-28T20+00:00Affiliate Group of the Week: Secular Society at ElonStef McGrawhttp://www.centerforinquiry.net/oncampus/blog/entry/affiliate_group_of_the_week_secular_society_at_elon/
http://www.centerforinquiry.net/oncampus/blog/entry/affiliate_group_of_the_week_secular_society_at_elon/#When:17:09+00:00Secular Society at Elon as Affiliate Group of the Week. We met Broadway Jackson III, group leader and then-intern of the Secular Coalition for America, at our CFI Leadership Conference this past summer, and were impressed with his thoughtful contributions during workshops. He continues to contribute his thoughts from time-to-time on The Course of Reason, including the following run-down of his background, his group, and his view of the future of secularism.

First, please introduce yourself. Where you go to school, graduation year, your background. What’s your “atheist/secular conversion story,” if you have one?
I’m Broadway Jackson III, a senior at Elon University majoring in International Studies and minoring in French and Political Science. I live just outside of D.C. in Cheverly, Maryland. My conversion story is more of a long progression than an event or anything like that. I learned in my younger years that prayer didn’t really work despite what I was being told at my local Baptist Church. My doubts were furthered by discovering that classmates of mine and even teachers growing up were agnostic; just by being there, these people made me more comfortable with the possibility of not believing in a god. As I got older, I tried to reconnect with the church but it was never able to light a fire in me or truly make me believe. By the time I got to college the facts settled for me: I did not believe in a god because I had no reason to and that was okay. I interchange my identification between an atheist and secular humanist but both resonate with me perfectly.

How did your group get started? What year was it founded? Was there a specific event or incident that motivated you or the founders to create the organization?
My sophomore year at Elon, 2012-13, there was the Irreligious and Pastafarian club which was a group for non-religious students at the university, but, at the time, I was unaware of its existence. During my junior year, a friend of mine, the former president, asked if I wanted to be an Event Coordinator of Student Atheists and Non-Religious at Elon, the new name for the club, and I wholeheartedly accepted.

What is your group’s name? How did you decide on that name?
Student Atheists and Non-Religious at Elon, also known as SANE, was our name until this fall when we decided to become the Secular Society at Elon. We decided that SANE had an element of hostility that we didn’t think was useful for our organization as we tried to group from a small circle to a larger on campus. We also felt that being a secular society was far more open, which we wanted our group to be, than being just for atheists and non-religious students; secularism is for everyone.

What are some events that your group holds or some activities that your group has been involved in? Which are your favorites?
We have had a few events this semester and are excited for some future events next semester. This fall we had a witch come and speak to our group about witchcraft and tell us her story. We also had a Reiki healer come and talk to us about chakras, Reiki healings, and new age spiritualism.

Talk up your group. What's something that you've accomplished that you're really proud of?
While we haven’t had the most eventful semester, yet, I am proud that we’ve had an increasing number of people per event and have increased our name as the home on campus for non-religious students.

What do you see as the mission of your organization?
Our mission is to increase the visibility of secular students at Elon and to help create the pluralistic and inclusive community that our university desires.

How did you hear about CFI On Campus? How have you worked with CFI On Campus in the past, and how do you hope to work with us in the future?
I heard about CFI On Campus while interning at the Secular Coalition for America this summer. I also attended the CFI Leadership Conference this summer and learned a lot about how to make my group work as we grow in size. I hope that CFI On Campus remains a quality resource for advice in the future and to continue writing for the Course of Reason Blog.

What is your vision for the secular movement?
I hope that the secular movement succeeds in becoming more politically active and finally reaches a point of normalcy in American culture. The day that people can believe or not believe in whatever they want is near but it requires more visibility of folks who are different. I hope that I can be a part of that movement and support a healthy and more open future for everyone.

]]>Affiliate Group of the Week2014-12-18T17+00:00Affiliate Group of the Week: Kettering Secular SkepticsStef McGrawhttp://www.centerforinquiry.net/oncampus/blog/entry/affiliate_group_of_the_week_kettering_secular_skeptics/
http://www.centerforinquiry.net/oncampus/blog/entry/affiliate_group_of_the_week_kettering_secular_skeptics/#When:18:17+00:00
I’m Austin Edwards and I am a junior at Kettering University. I’m studying Mechanical Engineering and Engineering Physics.

Growing up, I was raised by my mother who primarily followed New Age doctrine. Until about 12 years old, I suppose that I believed what my mom did. I believed that a pendulum could answer questions about the future, I believed that chanting spells and making concoctions would bring me things like love, good grades, and make all the lights green on the way to school. I believed that rocks had powers to control your “energy”, luck, and prosperity. I believed that people had auras and that I could see them. I believed that we have multiple lives and that I, according to my mom, had an old soul – wise and yet playful. I believed that the lady at the new age shop had healed my ear infection and that she could see my past life, where I owned a house in Ireland that I would eventually go back to in this life. Heck, I even thought for a brief period of time that I could stop a rolling pencil.

All the while, in the back of my mind, I had doubts about the efficacy of my actions and the actions of these other people who believed this too. Could the pendulum really know about the future (through spirit guides)? Could stones really grant me better luck if I kept them on me? Could there really be this thing known as chakra? Did chanting spells really make the lights green on the way in to school?

As I gained knowledge of the world (something my friends say I may still lack) and a stronger sense of causality, I began to understand that the things I was doing weren’t doing anything but making me look like a fool. I realized that the pendulum only worked if I was holding it. Further, it always seemed to side with what I wanted it to say… imagine that. I realized that the pencil came to a standstill because it had lost all of its momentum to the table, not because I made it lose momentum. I realized that the lights were going to behave how they will no matter if I chanted or not.

For a great while, I hadn’t really even thought about Christianity or God, only that they were probably just as worthwhile as the other stuff I formerly believed in. Then, in my last two years of high school I met two critical thinkers. One of them was an inundated Christian and the other was more of a deist. We had hours upon hours of conversation about God, Christianity, the meaning of life, etc. You name the big topic, we discussed it. From that I fleshed out that I was most certainly not in agreement with them and that I was confident that there was no God. Confidence is nice, but I had to be sure, so I began to look into it by reading books and talking to people.
After high school I went off to Kettering University and met the other two founders of Kettering Secular Skeptics (KSS). We had much more than atheism in common; nonetheless it was a bonding commonality. One of the founders, Jason, has a girlfriend who goes to Michigan State. She mentioned that Michigan State had a club that was partnered with this organization known as “Center For Inquiry (CFI)” and she noted that I might enjoy the organization due to my keen interest in atheist matters. I looked it up and didn’t really understand what it was about. So, for probably another half a year I went on dreaming of some organization that would do everything that I found CFI does.

Eventually something roused my attention in CFI once more and I began to look into the organization more thoroughly. Upon discovering that CFI is exactly what I was looking for, I approached Lance and Jason about starting a club on campus. They were apprehensive about it, to say the least. How were we going to find the time? Who would even join? What would we do? There were a lot of questions to be answered and only one way to find out – to try it and see.
Kettering University’s schedule works a little differently than most schools. Kettering University breaks the year into quarters. The first and third quarter, Lance, Jason, and I work at an internship in the field of our study. During the second and fourth quarter, we are at school studying hard. Each quarter is referred to as a “term”.

We began our club in the spring of 2014 with a discussion style meeting every Tuesday afternoon. We would bring some topic and present on it and then we would open the floor for the attendees to give their two cents. We mainly had our friends show up, but sometimes it was just us three.

The meetings were nice and informative, but they weren’t effective. Even when we got a free microwave and gave out free popcorn, the attendance was sparse at best and the ideas we wanted to promote on campus weren’t reaching anyone that we weren’t friends with and who already knew our positions well. We wanted more and the term quickly came to an end.

Over the last summer, we were informed of a leadership conference hosted by CFI and we gladly took off work to attend it. It was wonderful, as one of the founders, Lance, has detailed here. Lance, Jason, and I came away from that conference tired and as a result bickering on the way home, but overall full of a newfound direction and a plan for our club for the upcoming school term.

So here it is this fall term: revamped, renewed, and full of energy. We originally called ourselves Kettering University Center For Inquiry On Campus, but due to a battle with the student government about being recognized as a club and getting funding, we had to remove the affiliation in the name. We labored over finding a name, but eventually found Kettering Secular Skeptics to be quite fitting. We have actually found ourselves having to defend against the student government that it is necessary to keep “Kettering” in our name, but I digress.

Many names were tossed around. One of which I proposed was Kettering University Secular Humanists or KUSH. Little did I know, “kush” is a slang word for marijuana - and now you may see why my friends think I still lack knowledge about the world.

So what did this newfound direction and plan do for us? How did it take shape over these past few months? First, we got organized. We wrote a constitution, we found some core values to stand upon, and we built an organization that will allow for expansion.

We began with our mission. We decided that our mission is to encourage secularism, skepticism, critical thinking, freedom of inquiry, and humanism on Kettering’s campus and in the community at large; and to foster a safe environment where individuals can question beliefs without judgment.
In that statement you’ll notice something. You’ll notice that we left out atheism. Mainly it was a marketing decision, but it was also about a principle. We are not on campus to convert people to atheism or even to promote it. We are on campus to encourage a diverse set of ideas - to encourage critical thinking about topics that are typically taboo. If, through doing so, people became atheists, then so be it, but that was not our goal. Too, as the argument goes, it is better to positively define yourself rather than to negatively do so.

We started off the term running. We went to the club expo in order to catch all of the freshmen’s attention. We hosted a weekly meeting at a local pub, and we even worked with Students for Free-Thought from University of Michigan Flint to bring in Dan Barker to speak on being “Good without God” halfway through the term. Now we are working with the Wellness Center on campus to bring awareness to sexual assault and gender equality matters.

We are shaking the core of this traditionally conservative private university, and we’re honestly not surprised. We’ve gotten a few nicknames, the latest of which is the Kettering Shit Starters, and we’ve gotten even more surprising looks when people hear of the positive things we are doing on campus. One thing that has really kept us going is that there are a large number of people who have come out of the woodworks saying that they are atheist and that they are overjoyed to find that Kettering has a club for secular students.

Having just started out this term, I think that the most impressive feat we were able to accomplish was gaining traction. With three people, no money but the money from our pockets, very little time, and a strong will we were able to not only attract attention to our club, but also bring in a big name speaker. We were able to make a name for ourselves at Kettering University, and we were able to challenge the religious and conservative student government enough to become recognized as a club on campus. Hopefully next term we will actually have a budget to work with and we will be able to accomplish even more.

Ultimately, I’m grateful for is how much networking we’ve been able to do. Whether it is through Center For Inquiry’s Leadership Conference, the local student groups, or even the like-minded people on our campus, we are building a movement and because of that we are making a difference. As Dan Barker pointed out during his speech at our campus, student groups like ours were all but non-existent some 30 years ago. Now, we are springing up left and right – from liberal public universities and high schools to private universities like Kettering University.
So where is this movement leading? What is KSS’s vision for this movement? Our vision is to unite - to make a stand. We want to let people know that the “nones” are here and we aren’t going away. We want to ensure that the government stays secular, and that there is equality for people who are LGBT+. Furthermore, we want to ensure that women are treated fairly, and we want to encourage skepticism and critical thinking. Basically, our goal is to network at the grassroots so as to change the world for the better. And that is exactly what we are doing – all of us.

We are making a difference.

]]>Affiliate Group of the Week2014-12-12T18+00:00Being Nonreligious During the Holiday SeasonRebecca Surrozhttp://www.centerforinquiry.net/oncampus/blog/entry/being_nonreligious_during_the_holiday_season/
http://www.centerforinquiry.net/oncampus/blog/entry/being_nonreligious_during_the_holiday_season/#When:23:35+00:00
"So you're an atheist...but your family celebrates Christmas! Why would you do that? How can you celebrate that? It's about Jesus!"
"Well, why do you celebrate Halloween?"
"I...well...you've been asked this before, haven't you?"
Yeah, I've been asked that before. Most of us have. The above is an excerpt from an actual, extremely uncomfortable conversation with a former boss. The words might be different, but we all know the exchange. The gasp of disbelief, followed by the possessive horror that you, a godless heathen, would dare celebrate their holiday, the day of Jesus' birth!

It's always a little awkward, but I've found a couple ways to respond to it, depending on the person asking. I always open with asking about Halloween, though. It tends to stop people short and make them think "Why DO we celebrate that? Huh. Weird." Of course, there are those people who don't celebrate Halloween. In which case, it's doubtful that anything you say will convince them that it's alright for you to celebrate Christmas. And that's ok--your differing beliefs hopefully won't ruin the other's holiday. But if you've gotten them to pause for a moment, you can go two ways: family or history. If they're interested, talk about the solstice and pagan religions. If they're staunchly "the-bible-says-this-and-that's-how-it-went," I usually wax eloquent on the beauty of family time.
The end goal is always the same: give someone a look at a life different from their own. I love Christmas. I celebrate the hell out of it. And I do so for the same reasons as the majority of Americans: family, tradition, and fun. I just take Jesus out of the equation. Many atheists do the same. Being open about why we celebrate the holidays (if we choose to do so) is another way to make us seem more human to the rest of the world. People questioning you might seem ignorant, annoying, or in your face, but try and treat each question like a sincere inquiry and respond as such. Even if someone is trying to put you on the spot and isn't really looking for an answer, actually giving one may make them think. It might open their mind to other viewpoints. It might even make them genuinely curious about the way you live your life.

So go enjoy your holiday, and don't be shy about why you celebrate!

]]>2014-12-08T23+00:00Affiliate Group of the Week: Furman University Society of Free InquiryStef McGrawhttp://www.centerforinquiry.net/oncampus/blog/entry/affiliate_group_of_the_week_society_of_free_inquiry/
http://www.centerforinquiry.net/oncampus/blog/entry/affiliate_group_of_the_week_society_of_free_inquiry/#When:20:30+00:00CFI On Campus is excited to bring back our Affiliate Group of the Week series on the Course of Reason blog! This week we're highlighting the Furman University Society of Free Inquiry (SoFI). We met three of their officers at last summer's CFI Leadership Conference, and were impressed with their enthusiasm and passion for the student freethought movement. Director of Public Relations Kristen Murdaugh gave us her thoughts about her group, the secular movement at large, and more:

First, please introduce yourself. Where you go to school, graduation year, your background. What’s your “atheist/secular conversion story,” if you have one?
Ciao! My name is Kristen Murdaugh. I am a junior at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina. In order to complete a plethora of majors, I plan to stay at Furman until 2017. I hope to pursue a career in opera, particularly modern twenty-first century opera.

Raised in the boondocks of civilization, I moved away from home at sixteen to pursue music at a residential art school in Greenville. Having always been skeptical of the southern norm to full-heartedly devote oneself to Christianity, I began to explore the religion more in depth once I moved away from my hometown, a fairly close-minded community. The large amount of hypocritical tendencies within Christianity along with the abundance of discrepancies found in the text and its fulfillment in society led me to gradually drift away from a conformist belief in it. I struggled in my existential crisis for quite some time; I desired to know the bounds of my creation and life, and I was not at a place where I could wholly trust myself to dwell in the realm of science. As I continued to expand my depth of religion and scientific knowledge, I found contentment in the unknown. Yes, evolution and the big bang were both agreeable concepts. But ambiguity of trust - the ability to find bliss in taking control of my life and not allowing an external force to govern it - this is where I ultimately found myself and my happiness.

There was never a moment where I suddenly decided, “Hey, I think I’m going to be an atheist now.” However, there was a moment when I realized I had no qualms about being an atheist, even if that meant I would be in conflict with friends and family and my community as a whole. At this point in time, I am a quasi-open atheist and humanist. For the most part, my family and friends are extremely accepting of who I am, and the small amount of people who are not, well, maybe they will be one day.

How did your group get started? What year was it founded? Was there a specific event or incident that motivated you or the founders to create the organization?
SoFI began as a brain-child of Frances Flowers Ennis, graduate of the class of 2009. Frances entered Furman's community in the fall of 2005 as an agnostic and soon realized that there was not an organization or forum on campus for ideologies similar to her own. After two years of struggling to find people with similar views on campus, she began the process of forming a skeptic group at Furman. She intended for the group to be open to nonbelievers (agnostics, atheists, humanists, secularists, skeptics) as well as believers. Faculty and Staff at Furman showed a tremendous amount of support for her efforts, allowing the group to start on stable ground.

To prepare for launching the group in the fall of her senior year, Frances attended a student leadership conference through the Center for Inquiry in Buffalo, New York. She returned to Furman with an abundance of ideas and the motivation to form a group that would have a long-lasting secular presence on Furman's campus. By reaching out to the Furman community via student news and other outlets of communication, she met students such as Ryan Hampton and Jenn Guinter who assisted her in successfully launching the group. They set out to create an atmosphere of tolerance and respect within SoFI, welcoming the entire religious/nonreligious spectrum. Within the first few months of launching the group, there were 30 + students interested. Although not every interested student was able to attend the meetings, they at least had solace in the fact that there was a group at Furman with views similar to their own.

What is your group’s name? How did you decide on that name? Do you have a logo to go with that name (if you do, feel free to send it our way so we can post it)?
At the moment, our group is in a name transition period. Our original name, Society of Free Inquiry, SoFI, has been in place for 5 years. With its “cutesy” appearance, it has been successful. However, we felt that it was a bit exclusive. Thus, we began the paperwork and logo renovation to change our name to Furman University Secular Student Alliance, FUSSA.

In Furman’s community, a traditionally conservative religious presence is extremely powerful. Being the only secular organization on campus, we wanted our group name to feel more inclusive and unified in its efforts to bring people of all religious or nonreligious beliefs together in intellectual discussions and progress.

What are some events that your group holds or some activities that your group has been involved in? Which are your favorites?
We try to facilitate events that allow students in the Furman community who feel restricted in the religious prominence on campus to come out of their box in a social setting. Through these events, we eliminate the pressure of needing to have any prior secularist knowledge for an in depth discussion and instead stress the importance of valuing people for who they truly are, not allowing people to be solely defined by their beliefs.

We have regular meetings but try to avoid the boring routine element of meetings by shaking things up from time to time, either by location, purpose, or method of communication,. We also work with other groups on campus to bring guest speakers and artists to our community. At the moment, we are in the process of gathering our forces to help our Greenville and Furman communities; we want to be a more helpful service presence. We are working on a food and clothing drive as a starting step for this journey.

A personal favorite held every semester, we facilitate at least one “Coffee with an Atheist” event at which students and people of the South Carolinian upstate community can come to gain a greater understanding of secularism, often particularly atheism. The event is meant to be a question and answer session and less of a debate between the philosophies and beliefs of the religious and nonreligious.

Talk up your group. What's something that you've accomplished that you're really proud of?
Our group constantly struggles with isolation in the Furman community. This semester, we wanted to focus our attention on making our organization an integral part of campus. Of course, we are still in the process of doing this, but we have made progress. We have a stable group of members and supporters, and we feel as if we are making a difference. And isn’t that what truly matters?

What do you see as the mission of your organization?
We aim to foster self-discovery and support among freethinkers. We are a safe, confidential place where students can share and discuss their beliefs, doubts, and experiences concerning religious and/or spiritual affairs. We are anti-dogmatic but not anti-religious, and encourage members to explore and develop their own beliefs, apart from preordained dogma. We welcome people at any stage of self-discovery, whether they have concrete, definite beliefs and a system of philosophy to support them, or occasionally attend church and don't quite know what they believe or why they believe it. We facilitate discussions, debates, and presentations for students so that they can decide what they believe if they're uncertain, or be able to defend themselves in an educated manner if they are certain.

How did you hear about CFI On Campus? How have you worked with CFI On Campus in the past, and how do you hope to work with us in the future?
As stated previously, when Frances Flowers Ennis began the process of forming our group on Furman’s campus, she attended a Center for Inquiry student leadership conference. After that one conference, CFI was constantly an organization SoFI looked toward for guidance. SoFI officers have continued to attend conferences. Ashton Nicewonger, director of membership and outreach, Rich Hatch, director of finance, and I, director of public relations, attended the conference this past summer where our organization received the 2014 Campus Affiliate Group Award for Most Improved. We hope to expose more students on our campus to CFI; we want students to have a greater understanding of the realms in which secularism exists (religion, politics, etc.) and to know what CFI and secular student organizations alike are fighting for.

What is your vision for the secular movement?
We desire equality for secularism. In the south, secularism remains the underdog, the evil cousin of the religious realm. People are very closed off to even hearing about secularism, let alone taking part in the movement. We envision a day where church is truly separated from state, a day where politics can fulfill their purpose without the degradation of any belief system.

]]>Affiliate Group of the Week2014-11-20T20+00:00The Huge Success of GCSC CFI On Campus’ Carl Sagan DayJake Brownhttp://www.centerforinquiry.net/oncampus/blog/entry/the_huge_success_of_gcsc_cfi_on_campus_carl_sagan_day/
http://www.centerforinquiry.net/oncampus/blog/entry/the_huge_success_of_gcsc_cfi_on_campus_carl_sagan_day/#When:23:23+00:00
Thanks to our great members and other collaborating academic divisions, this multiple-day celebration was a huge success! We were able to build anticipation for it with campus-wide promotion of Dr. Sagan via event flyers, public TV spots, email blasts, and gigantic banners around the school designed by our college’s own Art Club. We were also able to work with our college’s library to set up a Carl Sagan Day exhibition at the library entrance, with books on display written by Carl, his widow Ann Druyan, and other notable science popularizers and biographers.

Kicking off a week full of celebrations, we had a packed house for our Science Trivia event—in association with GCSC’s Brain Bowl organization—in the college’s cafeteria on Tuesday. We gave out a number of prizes, including my personal favorite book by Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark. Then, on Wednesday, we had the fortunate pleasure of working with our GCSC Student Government Association to enjoy Robert Zemeckis’ 1997 film Contact. The film starred Jodie Foster and Matthew McConaughey (Interstellar, anyone?), and was based on the original novel by Dr. Sagan himself. We were even able to show it on a gorgeous big screen in one of the college’s vast presentation rooms. Some fantastic discussions followed the film, such as its metaphors, its motifs, and the importance of its message(s).

Finally, on Thursday, we ushered in Carl Sagan Day at our GCSC Advanced Technology Center to an impressively large audience with some delicious apple pie (get it?), more trivia for even more prizes, and an award presentation for our event’s essay contest winners. The contest was hosted and judged by Professor Amber Clark and her GCSC Language & Literature division, respectively; contestants were to write about “The Significance of Carl Sagan’s Efforts to Promote Science and the Scientific Method”; and prizes awarded for the contest reached nearly $200 in value! For our headlining act, we showed a video presentation—pieced together by our very own organization—on Carl and his influence in the scientific and non-scientific world, and on the scientific method itself. Following the video presentation, we held a Q&A discussion all about the Universe with Natural Sciences’ professor of physics Dr. Clifford Harris. Dr. Harris was even generous enough to allow us to pass around a couple of 4.5 billion-year-old meteorites. (As an eye-opening comparison, that’s about the same age as our own Earth and parent Solar System itself. Whoa!) And as a grand finale, we presented a beautifully animated video of Dr. Sagan’s “Pale Blue Dot” poem, narrated by Sagan himself.

All in all, our first-annual Carl Sagan Day went better than we could have ever imagined. We are so lucky to have such great members, as well as other campus organizations and divisions, who step up to the plate to volunteer for celebrations such as this. In doing so, they helped us put together an event to be remembered for years to come. They also helped to promote a foundational way of thinking that has always been, and continues to be, of utmost importance in society. I can only hope that their respective efforts and partnerships with us will be an inspiration to other organizations out there. We continue to thank everyone who contributed to make this celebration truly worthy of Carl Sagan’s name, and we look forward to more wonderful events in our organization’s future. With that, I’ll conclude with a favorite quote of mine from Dr. Sagan—a quote that I hope more and more people will consider every time they think about the world and our place in it:

"It is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.”

]]>2014-11-11T23+00:00Suffering and ReligionCFI On Campushttp://www.centerforinquiry.net/oncampus/blog/entry/suffering_and_religion/
http://www.centerforinquiry.net/oncampus/blog/entry/suffering_and_religion/#When:16:42+00:00This article was originally posted on illinissa.com by a member of the Illini Secular Student Alliance.
I'll admit it. I found out about Brittany Maynard from a click bait title on my Facebook feed. Hers has all of the parts of a perfect viral story: beautiful 29 year old with lethal brain cancer decides to legally end her life through the Death with Dignity Act in Oregon. Maynard's story is bringing back to life the debate surrounding the idea of physician-assisted suicide and the ethics of terminal patients willingly ending their own life instead of suffering through their disease.

Ever since the announcement last week, people from around the world have weighed in on the subject. I have ignored most of the discussion on the topic because this is, and should be, a personal decision. However, a religious friend of mine posted about a plea to Brittany to continue to live and dispose of her pill. This response caught my attention because it comes from another terminal cancer patient.

Kara Tippets, the author, suffers from breast cancer that is slowly killing her. Naturally, she should have some valued insight on fighting such a terrible disease and staying strong throughout the difficult treatments. Tippets instead says that Maynard's choice of action is not "what God intended". She further implores Maynard to stay alive because her suffering will bring beauty to her life. Maynard's doctors fed her a lie about the pain and suffering in dying of terminal brain cancer. Additionally, Tippets states that Jesus died and overcame the death that these women are facing in cancer. Jesus only wants to shepherd her to death the natural way.

After reading this response, I was speechless. Tippets is asking a woman making the most difficult decision of her life to change her mind because of the big guy in the sky. Tippet seems to think Maynard should suffer through losing her ability to walk, talk, eat, and control her bodily functions because Jesus will show her beauty in a horrific death. My first thought was "where is the beauty in losing the one thing we value the most, our mind?".

As I tried to piece together Tippet's train of thought from her post, I noticed one overarching idea. The promise of paradise in a religion overrides every other option. Religion tends to make people think that suffering is the only way to reach the proverbial carrot at the end of the stick. I am not saying that people who believe in a deity would not chose to end their life like Brittany or vice versa. I am saying that religion has a funny way of deluding people into thinking that suffering a prolonged and painful death is worthwhile to potentially see Heaven. It is hard for secularists to wrap their mind around this concept because we do not have a paradise at the end of our lives. We just have a wooden box buried under six feet of dirt. For us, there is no beauty in the suffering of terminal cancer, only pain and sadness.

Whether or not Brittany goes through with her end-of-life plans, one thing is clear. The decision a terminal patient faces in this situation is difficult and emotional. If the individual decides to forgo suffering for a dignified death on their own terms, I believe that is their right. Religious people should not condemn patients for valuing their life over a potential paradise.

]]>2014-10-27T16+00:00Thinking about spring in the fallStef McGrawhttp://www.centerforinquiry.net/oncampus/blog/entry/thinking_about_spring_in_the_fall/
http://www.centerforinquiry.net/oncampus/blog/entry/thinking_about_spring_in_the_fall/#When:15:38+00:00should be thinking about, is what your group will be doing in the spring.

It seems too soon to be thinking that far ahead, and if your college experience is anything like mine was, you're probably really busy right now . It's easy to think that planning for the spring semester can wait, and to some extent, it's also justifiable. Solidifying the details of an event happening in two weeks is probably more important than figuring out your speaker for Women's History Month in March. In other words, if you haven't thought about the spring semester, you don't need be in panic mode; you're probably good. However, planning events, particularly big events, several months before they happen is critical to what makes an otherwise average student group become a powerhouse on their campus and in the student freethought movement at large.

Events planned far in advance tend to be more well organized, have better attendance, and have a better overall execution. This may seem obvious, but it's easy to fall into the mental trap of forgetting how much time and effort it takes to put on a successful event, or to think that because a past event was successful, you can put less effort into your next one. To give a personal anecdote, I think it honestly took two or three years of being a student leader for me to fully realize that pulling off a really good event at the last minute is the exception, not the rule. I don't usually consider myself a slow learner, but I was seemingly stuck in this cycle: plan successful event far in advance; decide to be more laid back about next event and put off planning; end up with mediocre event; decide to plan far in advance next time. Essentially, even though I knew that solidifying details in advance was important to an event's success, I kept thinking that because my last event went well, I didn't have to worry about that. But what I didn't realize was that by putting off the planning, I was actually eliminating one of the primary reasons my past events were successful in the first place.

To bring this back to you and what your campus group should be doing, I'll tell you this: think about spring in the fall. Maybe you decide that the actual planning of an event can wait until after Thanksgiving, but don't wait until after Thanksgiving to come to that realization. My suggestion is to have a meeting with your exec board where you brainstorm what you want to do in the spring, and then for each event, make a timeline specifying when certain steps in the planning process need to occur, as well as the details surrounding the completion of those tasks. For a Women's History Month event in March, here is what part of your planning timeline might look like:

Again, it seems early to be thinking about an event in March, but it's far better to plan something earlier than you need to than to realize in January that you didn't do all those things over winter break you were planning on doing and now you're behind schedule and now you have reason to stress out because the event is a mere month and a half away. You don't want that and your group doesn't want that. Save yourself the stress and put your campus group among the best: plan ahead.

If you need any help planning ahead, contact us! As campus organizers, Cody, Sarah and I are here to help make your group the best it can be. Shoot us an email at oncampus@centerforinquiry.net and we can provide the resources you need to have a successful event (that's hopefully not planned at the last minute).

]]>2014-10-17T15+00:00Why Sexual Education Matters for Straight MenO’neill Goltzhttp://www.centerforinquiry.net/oncampus/blog/entry/why_sexual_education_matters_for_straight_men/
http://www.centerforinquiry.net/oncampus/blog/entry/why_sexual_education_matters_for_straight_men/#When:21:58+00:00This article was originally posted on unifreethought.com.
When I was in high school, I had a lot of complaints about how and what we were taught. As a Civil War enthusiast, I was once given a detention when I told my sophomore history teacher that he had confused the dates of the Battles of Antietam and Gettysburg. The principal let me off when I demonstrated I was correct. I clashed with English teachers on interpretations of literature and complained that my math teachers didn’t teach in way that made sense to me. However, my time in college has shown me the topic my public education really failed to teach: sex.

I never had “the talk” with my parents. The closest we came was me discovering some condoms in my father’s sock drawer in middle school. I followed the directions on the wrapper and thought to myself, “what the hell do I do now?”. I also recall a special day in fifth grade when the boys and girls split up and went to different rooms. I don’t know what happened in the girls room, but I remember a man who we had never met throwing some confusing words at us. He explained circumcision insofar as letting us know whether it had happened to us. Then he drew some things on the chalkboard that reminded me of the time my parents took me to the Art Institute of Chicago. After a few hours of this I was told I was about to go through something called “puberty”, that men made sperm, women made eggs, and together those made a baby. We were all handed a paper bag with a stick of deodorant, face wash, and soap, and went to recess.

Sometime around 7th grade, our Home Economics class devoted a bit of time to explain that pregnancy occurred when a penis was inserted into a vagina. Unless you were eighteen or older, it was very bad to do this. After that we went back to making terrible baked goods and shoddy sewing projects. That was the last time I had any formal sex education in my school years. High School health focused on eating well and discouraging drug use. Gym class was an endless cycle of basketball, pickleball, badminton, and pacer tests. This, coupled with my social ineptness around women meant that I never really learned anything about sex.

While I can lament the implications of that on a personal level, there is a darker side. No one ever taught me about consent. Until I came to college, I had no idea what the hell it was. I’d seen movies and modern television. I knew that rape was a thing. I might even have been able to stammer something about it being when a woman (of course men couldn’t be raped) was forced to have sex.

Of course, to me at the time, “forced” meant physically. Things like psychological manipulation, coercion, or abusing mind altering substances didn’t really factor into my thinking. I didn’t drink in highschool, but I had this idea that alcohol was essentially a tool to get people together. In 2007 the movie Superbad rocked my friend group. It showed what we imagined high school was going to be like (and maybe to a degree was for other people). It told us that even if you were a socially awkward geek all you needed was a kickin’ party and some alcohol, and even you could get with that girl you’ve been crushing on. At one point in Superbad Michael Cera’s character asks the friend of the girl he wants to date whether it’s unethical to have sex with a girl if she is drunk. She replies, “Not if you’re drunk too.”

To a horndog fifteen year old that made perfect sense. If you’re both on the same level it isn’t “cheating”! While I still find Superbad and similar films entertaining, I’ve come to believe that too much of my sexual education came from movies and television shows that paid little attention to the matter of consent.

Fortunately for me, I had intelligent people to set me straight when I came to college. I learned that consent means getting an emphatic and clear “yes”. I learned that men can be raped, not only by men, but by women. I learned that sexuality isn’t a simple binary, that gender comes in all shapes, and that all these things are perfectly natural and normal. I’m certainly not an expert, but I’d like to think that, thanks to people who were knowledgeable and passionate about these topics, I turned out okay.

What really worries me are the kids who never met the sorts of people I did in college. I doubt my sexual education prior to college was unique. Until I came to UNI, I was ignorant, and while ignorance of the facts doesn’t excuse actions, I don’t think we should put all the blame on someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing is wrong, much less why.

We ought to ask how an otherwise decent individual could think it is acceptable to take a drunk person home to have sex. Especially because if you asked the same person if they would ever rape somebody, it’s likely they would emphatically say “no”.

]]>2014-10-10T21+00:00Why is free expression important to you?Nathan Zwierzynskihttp://www.centerforinquiry.net/oncampus/blog/entry/why_is_free_expression_important_to_you_nathan_zwierzynski/
http://www.centerforinquiry.net/oncampus/blog/entry/why_is_free_expression_important_to_you_nathan_zwierzynski/#When:17:26+00:00Editor’s note: During the week leading up to International Blasphemy Rights Day on September 30, leaders and members of CFI On Campus affiliate groups are responding to the question, “Why is free expression important to you?” This post is part of that series.
In a world where I am afraid to express my beliefs, I censor myself and even overtly lie to protect me and my friendships. Freedom of expression allows me the opportunity to honestly express my beliefs (and disbeliefs) and what I value to the people I care about. Besides the fact that lying is a memory intensive activity, having to put up the false front of being a different person causes me anxiety; that in turn distances relationships and harms friendships.

If you’ve ever tried something like learning Chinese, you know the anxiety and frustration that comes from not being able to physically make or even hear the sounds required to communicate. This is the same feeling of failure that leads some students to drop out of school. Even if you want to learn the language, the anxiety increases the personal cost on an already hard task. That’s the same anxiety I felt while talking with people I cared about. It was much easier to avoid the relationships and conversations than embrace the anxiety of being around them.

The freedom of expression isn’t something only restricted by laws; it’s restricted by myself. Since I stopped, I’ve become free to become close with friends and enjoy challenging and developing my ideas. This has led to talking with friends about feminism and getting a female perspective to transform my views with the help of a community rather than on my own. Now, I am able to flourish and talk about the things that are the most important to me while making this short life worth it.

Socially, I was my only barrier. I know I would have never grown to enjoy life if laws were restricting me as well. The freedom of expression is the right to embrace and live your humanity, and I wouldn’t take that away from anyone.